Improvement in clothes-pins



UNITED STATES PATENT FFICEt GEORGEV TOPPING, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CLOTHES-PINS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 166, 160, dated July 27, 1875; application filed January 30, 1875.

' To all whom t may concern Beit known that I, GEORGE TOPPING, of

` Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Clothes-Pins, and I do hereby declare that the following isa full, clear, and exact description ot' the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part ot' this specication, andV to the letters and gures ot' reference marked thereon.

Figure l of the drawing is a representation of a longitudinal vertical section of my clothes-pin, and Fig. 2 is an end `view ot' the same.

This invention has relation to clothes-pins which are designed for holding washed clothing upon a drying-line 5 and the nature of the invention consists in the novel construction of the parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described.

In the annexed drawings, A A designate the two wooden parts of a clothes-pin, of which a a are the griping ends, and c c the handles, a notch, b, lbeing cut transversely across the inner contiguous surfaces ot' the said griping ends for the purpose of receiving the line.

At the point where it is customary to hinge these wooden arms together-that is to say, at or near the center of their length-a deep longitudinal recess, h, is cut into their inner faces, and a groove, i, extending outwardly therefrom 'to the extremity of handles c, which recesses and grooves are each respectively designed to receive one end of a loop, e, and a leg, f, ot' a metallic spring, S, preferably of wire, and greatly resembling the wellknown sugar-tongs in its general form and appearance. This spring is secured in place by means of strong metallic pivots d passing transversely through the body of parts A into the opposite ends of loop e, fitting snugly therein, as shown in Fig. l. These pivots are cylindrical in shape, with a view to preventing undue friction. By this peculiar construction loop e is made to perform, in connection with pivots d, the `function of a hinge, the power whereby the griping ends a. a of arms A are actuated being produced by the resistance to compression of legs f and as the ends ot' .the said loop fit snugly into the recesses above described, and are prevented from escaping therefrom by pivots d, a hingespring of exceptional excellence is the result, which, while allowing the wooden parts of the said spring to expand freely without danger of tearing them away from each other, will yet hold them rigidly against relative endwise displacement.

What l claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a clothes-pin, the jaws A, having the recesses h, grooves z', extending outwardly to the end ofthe handles, and pivots d, in combination with the spring S, having loop e and legs f, arranged respectively in said recesses and grooves, as shown and described.

In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE TOPPING. Witnesses: J. B. BocxAFELLoW,

W. B. BRADFORD. 

